>>>. This will deter many from seeking a higher education level. You will therefore end up with a larger proportion of young people having lower education levels, which tend to lead to menial jobs, more unemployment, and a reliance on benefits. >>>

BUT! Right now we have a high population of 'educated' people working menial/unskilled jobs. There's a mindset that "You have to go to college to get a job", which leads to a saturation of "educated" and/or over-qualified employees.

(Provided this is accurate: http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/why-did-17-million-students-go-to-college/27634 )

Meanwhile you have folks like me living relatively comfortable who 1) Didn't go to college 2) Worked their way up into their positions 3) Got kinda lucky. 4) Didn't take on the debt. (NOTE: Number 3 helps a lot, I'm not going to lie).

Hmm...basically we have a "family plan" with 2 phones on it. Both HTC Android devices, capable of 4g (but non existent). I'd much rather pay 19.90E.

Talk 1500 anytime minutes $ 110.00
Additional line charges (1 line) $ 19.99
Nights and weekends starting at 7pm
Any Mobile, AnytimeSM
Mobile to mobile
Allow International Calls (1 line)
Messages - Text, Pictures and Video
Unlimited Data - Web, email, TV, music, GPS and more
4G speeds in select cities
Premium Data $ 20.00
Total Equipment Protection (2 lines) $ 16.00
Plan charges $165.99 + Taxes and fees

Average total monthly bill $167.76

Well, I do agree there are actual threats out there, sure. Yes, China potentially is a threat, as is Iran and N. Korea. Of those 3, I'd say China is potentially the largest threat just based on economic power and supply controls.

However, it is also very accurate to state that most of (the USA's) our "enemies" are primarily a result of foreign interventions. I use "enemies" loosely here, because we're not engaged in a traditional "war" with anyone (as defined by clear objectives competing against other Nations). When we send UAV's into another countries air space, intentionally or not, I would expect some blow-back. Same deal when we interfere in another countries politics.

I would suspect (and I have nothing to back this up) that most of the "cyber warfare" that China lays down (as a Nation) on the US is more comparable to Cold War Soviet spying than direct acts of aggression. A version of "ha-ha! Look what we can do!". --Again, not fact, just IMO.

Don't you mean Iran? Or was it North Korea?

I too started with Slashdot in the late 90's (closer to early 2000 I suppose).

Life/work got in the way, so I quit following the site. I finally came back about 6 months or so ago, mostly lurking.

Now I get the feeling most of the articles are aimed at getting page views. If it weren't for the comments section, I think I'd be just as well off looking at the stuff from Fast Company.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to clean up the vomit.

...but now when I look for netbooks, what I commonly see are $300+ devices. I'd pay $100 for one. Maybe even $150-200, but I picked up my wife's Toshiba laptop with a 17" screen for $300 about 3 years ago. Why would I pay that or more for a 10" screen, less power, and less storage?

Twas a hit piece ran by E. Hoffman Price, I swear it!

OOooh:

In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, its name is part of an incantation that could revive the dead:

        Y'AI'NG'NGAH
        YOG-SOTHOTH
        H'EE-L'GEB
        F'AI THRODOG
        UAAAH

BRING BACK REGAN!

At first I thought you'd mixed the King in Yellow with Narlyhotep. Then I remembered being on the on the Plateau of Leng.

As for Azathoth, well, he is a blind idiot god. Powerful, yes, but we really don't need more idiots. Cthulhu, well, he claims he's concerned with climate change, but look, he's probably not going to even wake up when the red phone rings in the middle of the night unless "The Stars are Right!". Though he'd maybe stick Dagon as a running mate and that's not all bad.

But what about the King in Yellow? Ya know, Hast...err...the one who shall not be named? Kinda hard to gather support like that though.

Oooh, Narly and Yog-Sothoth on a ticket! That's something I can get behind!

In practice or in theory?

In theory, the Federal Government abides by the constitution and deals with things outside of, or superior to, the individual states. ie. Minting money, the military, roads, US Postal Service, war, international affairs, felony crimes, taxation, etc.

Individual states would enforce the minimum standards set by the federal powers and can be more stringent if necessary. States *used* to control the Military Reserve units. The POTUS and Feds had to request the use of reservists for operations/actions. (I believe that changed sometime after 9/11, but I don't recall when).

In theory, it's easier to change things at the local and state levels. You can move to another town or state with relative ease, if another area has politics more to your liking.

In practice, (at least, based on my opinion) the Federal Government has substantially more power than the founders ever intended, and as a country we're wrapped up in way more international affairs than we should be. The State Governments are dependent upon the feds for financial support, funding special projects, bail outs, subsidies, etc....(I'm sure there's more, but lets keep this fairly short).

Realistically, most people only care about the federal issues portrayed on the daily news. I'd love to blame this on the media but it's also due to people being lazy -- myself included. I couldn't even tell you who the current City Mayor is, nor name most of the city politicians or state representatives. It doesn't usually make headlines, so we ignore it. Yet every election cycle, we hear about the presidential candidates positions on taxes, guns, abortion, religion, "equal rights", and basically the same talking points that never have any real bearing once the candidate is in office. We eat that shit up. It's entertainment & drama.

We all know the gov is slow to adapt, but it should also be pointed out the methods by which most of the DOD operates.

1. Should we do "it"?

2. Write a directive on how to do "it".

3. Have "it" reviewed and revised ad nauseum until "it" is no longer relevant nor accurate.

4. Give "it" to the newest lowest ranking least trained to implement, as the superiors have already reviewed "it".

5a. Interrupt mission critical operations by implementation gone wrong, resulting in a stop on progress, have a meeting, go back to step 2/3.

5b. Attempt to schedule a known outage and have it postponed indeffinatly as the risk of leaving things "as they are" is less damaging (for now) than interrupting current operations for a preventative change.

--------

That's the basic gist of it anyway.

Old speakers in all tests, in the same room, just switching amps. I've tested it with both AR-2ax and Pioneer HPM-1100s. The 1100s are our regular home theater front speakers, the AR's are sadly stashed away right now, but they're great for acoustical music.

Unfortunately, the Yamaha doesn't have any kind of output meter, just the volume dial. I normally get by with it being at about -30db, but sometimes as high as -5db depending on the source material. It very well could just be the equalization on the amp, though I often just use direct stereo on my systems.

Dunno, but it just seems kinda flat, like there's no real depth to it...not like with the older amps.

True, but I think the mastering, more so than the encoding, has damaged alot of popular music.

If we take a look at how most people listen (cheap earbuds) and master to make that sound "acceptable" in order to get record sales, then those who would listen on quality gear are going to hear something completely different. The low end is overly emphasized in certain ranges, to compensate for the inability of the speaker to actually replicate that sound.

In the past, when people had dedicated stereos, the desire was there for full range sound and it was mastered as such. It modern times, music is more back ground noise, so it's mastered to be catchy and stand out at the sacrifice of overall quality.

Any thoughts on the difference between, say, 1W power outputs in 1970 terms, vs. 35W outputs today?

I'm thinking of the stuff I have at home that I've used fairly often:

Yamaha HTR-5940 rated at 105W per channel max vs. my old Pioneer and Sansui gear (75W and 35W ratings).

With a 1W peak output (per the meters) on the Pioneer/Sansui pieces, I can "feel" the music. With the Yamaha, it feels like I need to crank it to 11 to get a full range sound out of it, even though its technically a more powerful amp.

Funny, I used VMware to run Windows under Linux. Ran like crap on my system at the time, but it did run.

A part of me would like to go back to Linux, but the ease of use for Windows is just too...easy, for me now, its comfortable and functional (XPpro). 'course the OS itself is about the only MS program I'm actually running, thanks to the likes of OpenOffice and Firefox, etc.